THE BREAKFAST BRIEFING

Investors can thank a better-than-expected start to earnings season for the stock market’s latest push to record highs.

The S&P 500 finished Wednesday at an all-time high, the 26th record close it has notched this year. The index, which is up 7.5% year-to-date, has risen in three of the past four days despite the geopolitical turmoil that has engulfed Ukraine and the Middle East.

While investors remain on edge regarding those overseas developments, many point to bright spots at home that have helped ease those concerns.

With earnings season about 1/3 of the way complete, S&P 500 companies are on pace to increase earnings 5.6% from a year earlier, according to FactSet. That’s better than the 4.9% gain that analysts projected before the unofficial start of the reporting season.

“Earnings season is again going quite well,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief strategist at New York brokerage BTIG. “The general narrative hasn’t changed and for us, the bias remains to the upside.”

But even Mr. Greenhaus expresses concern that the rally will continue at its current pace.

“Our recent client meetings suggest a growing (if that’s possible) unease with the current rally,” he said. “Geopolitical concerns seem to some to be going unheeded, volatility remains in hiding and the lack of a 10% correction – no matter how many times we argue such a correction is irrelevant – leaves many wondering if a larger decline is in store.”

Investors have been worried about the market at nearly every juncture of the bull market, especially the past year and a half. And yet those worries have been repeatedly brushed aside as the market has churned higher.

The geopolitical situation is a wild card for U.S. markets. It’s hard, if not impossible, to tell if or when something will spark a sudden shift in investor sentiment. But until that happens, and as long as earnings season continues to impress, there’s little reason to think the rally won’t keep going.

Morning MoneyBeat Daily Factoid: On this day in 2005, cyclist Lance Armstrong won a record seventh straight Tour de France. He has since been banned from competitive cycle and stripped of those titles due to doping.

STOCKS TO WATCH

TripAdvisor said its second-quarter profit edged up to $68 million, or 47 cents a share, from $67 million, or 46 cents a share, a year ago. Excluding one-time items, the online travel website would have earned 55 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast TripAdvisor to earn 61 cents. Revenue totaled $323 million, up from $247 million.

Qualcomm reported its third-quarter profit rose 42% on broad-based demand and raised its full-year adjusted earnings outlook to a range of $5.21 to $5.36. However, it expressed some concerns about China and said it believes certain licensees in the country are not fully complying with their obligations.

3M is expected to report quarterly earnings of $1.91 a share on revenue of $8 billion, according to FactSet data. Caterpillar is expected post quarterly earnings of $1.51 a share on revenue of $14.5 billion, while Ford is expected to report earnings for the latest quarter of 36 cents a share on sales of $36.2 billion.

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